Giants Luckily Avoided Signing Overpaid Pitcher This Past Offseason in Free Agency

Did the San Francisco Giants catch a break not signing a star pitcher?

Dec 12, 2024; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey speaks during the introductory press conference for shortstop Willy Adames (not pictured) at Oracle Park. | Robert Edwards-Imagn Images

With the season starting to go in the wrong direction for the San Francisco Giants, the team will have to start thinking about the offseason sooner rather than later.

It has been a disappointing recent stretch for a Giants team that was one of the best in the National League not too long ago. A horrific stretch coming out of the All-Star break resulted in them going from being a Wild Card contender to under .500 in about a month.

With things starting to go south, the team elected to be sellers at the trade deadline, and they moved some of their veteran talent. This was likely the right decision, with the team perhaps just overachieving early on.

Buster Posey and the front office will certainly be pleased with some things from the 2025 season, but it will be back to the drawing board over the winter. Even though things might not have gone according to plan so far, one of the decisions made by the team over the winter might have worked out.

Despite handing a massive contract to shortstop Willy Adames, they did avoid handing out a big contract to an often-injured star pitcher that could have backfired.

Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report recently wrote about the most overpaid players in baseball, and former Giants starter Blake Snell was mentioned.

“Snell has given the Dodgers 10 innings with a 2.70 ERA and a 16.2 K/9. If he keeps that up and has a strong, World Series-bound finish to the first season of his five-year, $182 million contract, we'll eventually forget he gave Los Angeles nothing through its first 110 games.”

Even though it was just a one-year stint with San Francisco, the southpaw was good in the second half of the 2024 campaign. Snell was one of the players who had a hard time finding a market in free agency, and the Giants signed him to a 1+1 deal.

Will Blake Snell Turn Things Around for the Dodgers?

Aug 9, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Blake Snell (7) pitches during the fifth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Dodger Stadium. | Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

Due to his success in the second half of the season, he declined his option and tested free agency. Last winter, he didn’t have nearly as hard a time signing, with the Los Angeles Dodgers handing him a massive contract.

So far, he has barely pitched for Los Angeles, which has resulted in him certainly falling into the overpaid category. However, while things might not have gone well yet, there is the possibility that Snell heats up like he did in the 2024 campaign and helps the Dodgers go on a run.

If he ends up pitching well down the stretch and the team wins the World Series, he will go from being overpaid to well worth it.